T3i digital zoom

Hello,

I am debating on either getting the T2i or the T3i. I am leaning towards the T3i because of Canon's claim to digitally zoom up to 10 times in movie mode without the loss of high definition. When I read that, I was kind of skeptical. How is that achieved without losing resolution? Does anyone have any links in regards to the way the digital zoom works?

Why bother with a camera's ability to digitally zoom? It's the same image at 10:1 as 1:1.

Digital zooming can be done on a computer - seems like a waste of processing capabilities for a camera to focus on something like that.

Lil Freek wrote in post #11850042
Why bother with a camera's ability to digitally zoom? It's the same image at 10:1 as 1:1.

Digital zooming can be done on a computer - seems like a waste of processing capabilities for a camera to focus on something like that.

With video?

well correct me if i am wrong, but if you digitally zoom in during post production, you're simply zooming in on the resolution which will degrade the quality once it is cropped. canon says that in video, it can zoom in up to 10 times without the loss of high definition. I wonder how this is done with no optics?

Probably the same way. They can interpolate in the camera as well, and still output HD, even if some of the pixels are just created in the camera. My 18 Megapixel camera has 5184 pixels across, and dividing that by 10 does not give 1920, not even 1280.

Maybe they used 3456 / 3.1623 = 1092

NEMESIS_2020 wrote in post #11851843
well correct me if i am wrong, but if you digitally zoom in during post production, you're simply zooming in on the resolution which will degrade the quality once it is cropped. canon says that in video, it can zoom in up to 10 times without the loss of high definition. I wonder how this is done with no optics?

It just uses the more center part of the sensor. Since, even at 1080P, a video is only 1920x1080 (about 2MP), it is a tiny resolution compared to a photograph and only required a fraction of the sensor (about 18MP).

So if I'm understanding this correctly, some of you are implying that these cameras are capable of recording video in resolution higher than 1920x1080?

newton wrote in post #11852278
So if I'm understanding this correctly, some of you are implying that these cameras are capable of recording video in resolution higher than 1920x1080?

Well... the sensor has way more resolution than 1080P, just the rest of the hardware can't possible keep up tho.

I mean, the Canon 7D and 1D4 both use dual digic 4's. If you calculate it out, both have about the same pixels per second. So if a 18MP sensor used ALL it's pixels, it could not really do video since it maxes out at around 8FPS... that would be a sucky video anyways.

themadman wrote in post #11852181
It just uses the more center part of the sensor. Since, even at 1080P, a video is only 1920x1080 (about 2MP), it is a tiny resolution compared to a photograph and only required a fraction of the sensor (about 18MP).

-> this

Although I don't think this allows for a 10x zoom unless you say 2MP = about 1/10th of 18MP and hence 10x zoom. (Would be 9 if that's the idea behind it)